'Unprecedented' Sentence For Chinese Academic

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent, in Beijing

A Chinese economics professor has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of "separatism" at a court in China.

Ilham Tohti, the country's most prominent Uighur Muslim scholar, was found guilty at the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi, the capital of China's far-western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

In a closed trial, off limits to foreign journalists and independent observers, the 44-year-old was accused of promoting independence in Xinjiang.

As he left the dock for a life in jail, Mr Tohti shouted, "It's not just! It's not just!", according to his lawyer, Li Fangping, who was in court.

Mr Li told Sky News: "This is a very harsh sentence. Ilham Tohti and we lawyers can't accept it at all.

Mr Tohti's sentence has been condemned by human rights groups

"We have been defending him for innocence. Now he's been sentenced to life in prison, deprived of political rights for life, and confiscated of all possessions, it's really terrifying."

The EU released a statement calling for Mr Tohti's "immediate and unconditional" release.

It said: "The EU condemns the life sentence for alleged 'separatism' handed out today to Uighur economics professor Ilham Tohti, which is completely unjustified.

"The EU deplores that the due process of law was not respected, in particular with regard to the right to a proper defence."

Amnesty International called the verdict "deplorable" and Human Rights Watch said it was "unprecedented".

According to state prosecutors, Mr Tohti used a website, UighurOnline, which he ran with students at Beijing's Minzu University, to call for an independent state in Xinjiang. No evidence for these claims was produced by the court.

As well as a life sentence, Mr Tohti has had his assets confiscated, leaving his wife and two children with nothing. His wife Guzaili Nu'er was in court and broke down in tears as her husband was taken away.

The economics professor taught at Minzu University in Beijing

"No matter what, we will appeal," his lawyer said.

As a member of China's minority Uighur Muslim population, Mr Tohti was a vocal but moderate critic of the Chinese government's policies in Xinjiang.

His imprisonment removes the only influential Uighur voice inside China. The length of the sentence has shocked his lawyers and rights groups.

"[This is] an incredibly harsh sentence, unprecedented for a prominent activist in China in recent memory," said Maya Wang from Human Rights Watch.

"This shameful judgement has no basis in reality. Ilham Tohti worked to peacefully build bridges between ethnic communities and for that he has been punished through politically motivated charges," said William Nee, from Amnesty International.

Nearly half of Xinjiang's 22 million people are Uighur Muslims, who claim they are persecuted by Han Chinese migrants from the rest of China.

They say their religious, cultural and economic freedoms are being eroded by the influx of Han Chinese.

The Chinese government says the Han Chinese are being threatened by a growing movement of Islamist extremism among the Uighur, a narrative strengthened in October when a Jeep, said to have been driven by Uighurs, ploughed into a group of tourists in Tiananmen Square.

Earlier this month, Sky News spent a week travelling in Xinjiang. We found no evidence of extremism but considerable resentment among the local population and anger at new policies banning beards, veils and in some cases, a ban on fasting during Ramadan.

The Communist government, who control the courts in China, has made no comment.

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2,000 UK Troops In 'Laser Quest Plus' Battle

The Army has kicked off its biggest training exercise of the year, with thousands of soldiers embroiled in a simulated battle using laser guns.

Half of the troops are fighting as Britain, others as insurgents

Hundreds of tanks and vehicles are also involved in the prairie war, with state-of-the-art sensors registering hits and 'kills' - similar to indoor war game Laser Quest.

Soldiers have been split into two groups, with one team fighting as Britain and the other as the enemy.

Experts have described the exercise, Operation Prairie Storm, as "Laser Quest plus" because the simulation lasts eight days and spans 1,160 square miles of Canadian countryside.

'God guns' mean key personnel can be wiped out from the scenario in seconds

Simulated suicide vests and laser grenades are also being used.

Although the challenge would be a dream come true for many enthusiastic gamers, the training does have a serious side.

Every soldier is equipped with sensors which detect whether they have sustained a fatal injury, or if one of their limbs has been damaged during fighting.

The teams must rescue one another and deliver first aid under pressure, while a "God gun" immediately kills off crucial individuals – such as a commander – to see how his platoon would respond during an emergency.

The 2,000 troops are equipped with sensors to detect if they have been hit

Lt Ian Hodgson is among the soldiers who have flown to Alberta, Canada, for the advanced training.

He said: "If a man is injured or killed in the simulation, the system will tell them that quickly.

"It forces us to think quickly and act under pressure, and hopefully brings home the reality of dealing with casualties in the field."

About 1,000 men and women from 1 Yorks, the King's Royal Hussars, the Royal Engineers, the Royal Artillery and other units are fighting as Britain.

Roughly 1,000 more will represent the enemy, led by the Royal Household Cavalry, as well as acting as local insurgents and safety co-ordinators.

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New iPhone Selling For Thousands In China

Apple iPhone 6 UK Launch Was 'PR Masterclass'

Updated: 9:59pm UK, Friday 19 September 2014

By Richard Suchet, Sky Reporter

I have an iPhone 5. The one without fingerprint recognition. I can't remember if that's the 5c or the 5s.

The camera has enough pixels but I couldn't possibly tell you how many. I don't know how much memory it has and my fingers are too fat to send coherent text messages.

It's white and, for a reason I just can't understand, it always wants to play 'Regulate' by Warren G when I turn it on its side.

My relationship with my mobile phone is akin to my relationship with the waste disposal unit built into my kitchen sink.

When it breaks, it's inconvenient and I get very angry - other than that my emotional attachment is nil.

And that's why I was so struck by the scenes outside the Apple store in London's Covent Garden this morning, where the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus went on sale at 8am.

I arrived at 7am to find over 1,000 people queuing round the famous piazza.

Sam Sheikh, 27, had been there since Saturday.

He said: "Last year I queued for a few days for the iPhone 5 and because of a stock shortage I was unable to get that phone.

"So I promised to myself that this year I will be the first person to get the new phone, no matter how many days it will take."

His friend, Jameel Hamed, 26, had been there for three days: "Just seeing the new iPhone in my hand will have made it worth waiting here for days," he said.

"I'm especially excited by the size of the screen. It's 5.5 [inches]. I was waiting for the big screen on iPhone. I'm especially excited for this. And the battery."

At 8am sharp, Apple staff gathered at the front door of the shop. As the doors opened, they cheered and clapped.

Then the big countdown. 10! 9! 8! 7! - the excitement and tension is carved into the faces of Sam and Jameel.

6! 5! 4!... the crowd join in and the countdown echoes through Covent Garden. Those within earshot know that the 9th and 10th instalments of a plastic handset are about to go on sale.

3! 2! 1!... Sam and Jameel are led into the shop... the staff are celebrating with disconcerting enthusiasm and camera flashes illuminate the grey morning. 

This was a PR masterclass - a press pen, an army of security guards, fanfare.

Apple even brought in their own TV crew, who filmed the action with such vigour that for a moment I thought I'd been cast in the Bourne Ultimatum.

But for all the manufactured hype, there is something quite remarkable about the Apple brand.

How many other companies can claim to have such loyal and passionate customers?

The iPhone 6 Plus costs between £619 and £789 - hardly bargain basement prices - and yet, as Jameel left the store holding his new device aloft, he declared: "I feel on top of the world."

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Worst 'Torture Tools' Sold By China Revealed

By Mark Stone, Asia Correspondent, in Beijing

China is facing calls to ban the sale of "torture tools" which Chinese manufacturers are producing in increasing numbers.

According to a report by Amnesty International and Omega Research Foundation, Chinese companies, many of which are state-owned, are increasingly active in promoting their equipment at trade fairs globally.

Spiked baton. Pic: Amnesty International/Robin Ballantyne

China does not impose restrictions on which countries it sells to, increasing the availability of inhumane law enforcement equipment to regimes with bad human rights records.

It has an increasing economic and trade footprint across the globe with a particular 'soft power' focus in Africa where there are plenty of questionable governments in power.

The report highlights several Chinese-made items of particular concern:

1. Spiked Baton

The report authors say China is the only country to mass-produce batons with spikes built into them.

Two types are known to be on the open market: one is a regular plastic baton with metal spikes at its tip.

The second is a metal baton with metal spikes running down its length.

Twenty-one Chinese companies are said to make the batons, seven of which offer international sales.

2. Weighted leg cuffs

China's domestic use of these tools was highlighted in 2005 when the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture visited a prison in Beijing.

He discovered prisoners on death row wearing 3kg leg cuffs for 24 hours a day.

Seventeen Chinese company offer these devices, of which six sell abroad.

Thumb cuffs. Pic: Amnesty International/Robin Ballantyne

3. Thumb cuffs

According to the report, "these cuffs mechanically fix a detainee's thumbs together ... some have serrated inner edges that can pierce the skin if the cuffs are tightened."

Thirty-two Chinese companies manufacture thumb cuffs and 15 actively advertise them on English language websites.

4. Neck combination cuffs

These are devices which simultaneously fasten around the neck and wrists.

There is evidence they are in use in China, but no indications that they have been sold abroad yet.

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Al Qaeda Veterans Targeted In Syria Airstrikes

Hitherto obscure, they fell firmly into American gun sight in the first salvoes of the attack by coalition forces inside Syria.

They are the Khorasan Group - al Qaeda veterans allegedly planning attacks against the West.

Led by Musin al Fadhli, a 33-year-old Kuwaiti who was once so close to Osama bin Laden that he knew about the 9/11 attacks before they happened, the group subscribes to a ferociously anti-Western agenda.

Until a year or so ago, al Fadhli and his deputy Muhsin al Harbi were based in Iran.

They had been in and out of Iranian custody, occasionally subjected to house arrest - but were vital links to funding and recruitment of al Qaeda's operations, especially in Iraq.

They are, according to intelligence sources, now based in Syria. They have joined up with, or added themselves to, the al Nusra Front.

But while this al Qaeda franchise in Syria has focused on fighting the regime of Bashar al Assad and has been locked in combat with Islamic State, Khorasan have focused on anti-Western operations.

"They have been establishing close links to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - in Yemen - where there are some supremely accomplished bomb makers," said one informed intelligence source.

Tomahawk missiles launched by a US warship

The Pentagon said the airstrikes against Khorasan were because of active intelligence that their agents were plotting an attack in the West.

The UKand several other states have upped the threat level to "severe" in the last few weeks - which indicated there was intelligence that a terrorist attack was 'likely'.

The Khorasan Group, so-called because they draw their members from early Islamic regions that spread into parts of Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan which was known as Khorasan, is an al Qaeda veteran organisation in comparison with the competing Islamist franchise, Islamic State.

It has been losing ground, fame and recruits to IS and arguably needs to show its strength through a 'spectacular' attack on the West to restore its standing in the face of IS's media campaign and stunning territorial gains.

Late last year, an intelligence agency assessment of what has become the Khorasan Group said that al Fadhli "co-ordinates between the al Qaeda leadership and Jabhat al Nusra, which has been among the more effective fighting forces against Assad".

It said: "Al Fadhli now plays a key role in advancing plans for attacks by al Qaeda from Syria, in accordance with Iran's interests."

That last phrase is significant. How could operations by an al Qaeda-related group, a Sunni movement, serve the interests of Iran, a Shia dominated theocracy?

The answer lies in the old cliche that in the Middle East especially, "my enemy's enemy is my friend".

But it also may indicate that Iranian co-operation in allowing or encouraging al Fadhli to move to Syria was a means to boost the Assad regime's case that it was a bulwark against global Islamic terror.

Damascus has argued since the start of the uprising against Mr Assad's rule that it has been fighting "terrorists".

Whatever the truth of the Iranian connection to the Khorasan Group, Pentagon targeting officers can be expected to pursue the old school al Qaeda operatives - they will want to snuff out attempts to revive the brand by spilling blood in the Homeland.

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India Holds Its Breath As Orbiter Nears Mars

India is on course to become the first nation to conduct a successful Mars mission at its first attempt.

If the Mars Orbiter Mission, nicknamed MOM, goes as planned, the country will join the US, Russia and Europe in the elite club of Martian explorers.

The next few hours will be crucial as the Indian Space and Research Organisation carries out a series of manoeuvres to put the spacecraft into its designated orbit around the Red Planet.

Success would make history. More than half the previous missions - 23 out of 41 - have failed, including attempts by Japan in 1999 and China in 2011.

The orbiter reached the outer sphere of Mars' gravitational pull on Monday after the main liquid engine fired successfully.

How Maven may look in orbit around Mars

It had been dormant for 300 days as it travelled 666 million kilometres (413 million miles) since breaking free from earth's gravitational sphere on December 1.

The Indian space agency said MOM had a "perfect burn for four seconds as programmed" that adjusted the spaceship's trajectory.

Indian officials have said the chief aim of the mission - which is costing around $75m (£46m) - is to showcase the country's technological advances.

The orbiter will gather data to help scientists study Martian weather systems and ascertain what happened to its water. It will also look for methane, a key chemical in life processes on Earth.

US scientists were hugely relieved when Maven reached its destination after a journey that began almost a year ago.

India's orbiter ahead of lift-off in November

It joins three other spacecraft, two American and one European, orbiting Mars.

The $671m mission is the first dedicated to studying the planet's upper atmosphere and the latest step in Nasa's bid to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s.

Flight controllers in Colorado will spend the next six weeks adjusting Maven's altitude and checking its science instruments, and observing a comet due to pass by at relatively close range.

In early November Maven will start probing the atmosphere, which scientists believe holds clues to how Mars went from being warm and wet billions of years ago to cold and dry now.

They also hope to find out if there was microbial life on Mars during the earlier period.

Maven - short for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution Mission - will spend at least a year collecting data.

Nasa has two rovers on the surface - Curiosity and Opportunity, which is still active a decade after landing.

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Israel Kills Suspects In Jewish Teen Murders

Israeli troops have killed two Palestinians suspected of murdering three Jewish teenagers.

A gunfight took place after soldiers surrounded a house in the West Bank during a dawn raid, the Israeli military said.

Hamas activists Amer Abu Aisheh, 33, and Marwan Qawasmeh, 29, both from the Hebron area, were killed during the operation.

Israeli security forces had been hunting the pair since they were named as the killers of three Israeli youths shot dead near a Jewish settlement in June.

A memorial service for the three teenagers was held in New York in July

Their killings set off a chain of events that led to the 50-day war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said: "We opened fire, they returned fire and they were killed in the exchange.

"We have visual confirmation for one. The second one, we have no visual confirmation, but the assumption is he was killed."

Palestinian officials have not confirmed the men were killed.

Gilad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, Eyal Yifrach (L-R)

Israeli forces arrested hundreds of suspected Hamas members in the West Bank after Jewish students Eyal Yifrach, 19, and 16-year-olds Gilad Shaar and Naftali Fraenkel went missing.

Their bodies were found in a field near Hebron on July 1.

After initially denying involvement in the killings, Hamas last month acknowledged responsibility.

In the days leading up to the start of the Gaza war in early July, a Palestinian youth was abducted and killed by Israeli extremists in an apparent revenge attack.

More than 2,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed in the seven-week bloodshed.

On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed.

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Israeli Missile Shoots Down Syrian Fighter Jet

Israel says it has shot down a Syrian fighter jet over its airspace - the first such incident in more than 30 years.

The aircraft was hit by a Patriot missile while trying to "infiltrate" the Quneitra area of the Golan Heights, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) said.

An Israeli defence source identified the jet as a Russian-built Sukhoi Su-24 fighter plane. Previously it was reported to have been a MiG-21 aircraft.

The aircraft was hit by a Patriot missile

It flew 800 metres into Israeli airspace and tried to return to Syria after the Patriot missile was fired, he said.

The crew managed to abandon the plane in time and landed in Syrian territory, he added.

The Golan area, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war, has seen clashes between the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and Syrian President Bashar al Assad's forces in recent weeks.

Syrian state TV confirmed Israel had shot down one of its planes, and described it as an act of aggression.

A file picture of the type of jet that was shot down

It quoted a military source saying the attack came "in the framework of (Israel's) support for the terrorist (Islamic State) and the Nusra Front".

Israel's Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said the aircraft had crossed into Israel in a "threatening way" and vowed to retaliate to any similar incidents in the future.

"We will not allow (any) element, whether it is a terror group or a state, to threaten our security and breach our sovereignty," he said.

"We are committed first and foremost to ensure the security of the Israel's citizens and we will use all means at our disposal to do so."

It came hours after the US and five Arab countries began airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Syria for the first time.

The raids were carried out using fighter jets, bombers, drones, and Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from US ships in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar were involved in the raids, a US official said, although their exact roles were unclear.

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NHS Staff Volunteer To Help In Ebola Battle

Ex-NHS Nurse Tests Experimental Ebola Vaccine

Updated: 9:07am UK, Thursday 18 September 2014

By Thomas Moore, Health & Science Correspondent

A former NHS nurse has become the first person to be injected with an experimental ebola vaccine.

Ruth Atkins was given the jab in her arm and then carefully monitored by doctors for any side effects.

She is the first of 60 healthy volunteers to take part in a clinical trial at Oxford University's Jenner Institute.

She was paid just £380 - not for the risk, but for any loss of earnings.

An hour after having the vaccine she said: "I feel absolutely fine. It felt no different to being vaccinated before going on holiday.

"I volunteered because the situation in West Africa is so tragic and I thought being part of this vaccination process was something small I could do to hopefully make a huge impact."

The vaccine is made from a harmless chimpanzee virus that has been genetically modified to carry a benign payload of ebola DNA.

The genetic material will make a single ebola protein in the body - not enough to cause the disease, but enough to prime the immune system to attack the virus in future.

The volunteers will be given different doses and then monitored for side effects and their immune response.

Trials in monkeys have shown the vaccine is 100% effective in the first month, with some protection remaining 10 months later.

Professor Adrian Hill, who is leading the research team, said: "These are initial safety trials of the vaccine and it will be some time before we know whether the vaccine could protect people against ebola.

"But we are optimistic that the candidate vaccine may prove useful against the disease in the future."

Scientists and medicines regulators are fast-tracking the testing process, which would normally take at least 18 months.

They hope to start widespread use of the vaccine in West Africa early next year.

The manufacturer, GlaxoSmithKline, will scale up production even while testing is under way, so 10,000 doses will be ready to be sent out to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea as soon as the vaccine is given the green light.

The vaccine has been welcomed by Professor Peter Piot, who discovered the ebola virus, and is now director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

He told Sky News the vaccine should be given to healthcare workers who are at high risk of becoming infected.

But he warned there would not be enough doses to protect whole communities and "tens and tens of thousands" would still die.

"Whether this new vaccine will be useful to stop the epidemic I don't know," he said.

"Let's hope the epidemic will be nearly finished by the end of the year, or in six months' time.

"If it lasts much longer the vaccine will be there. But let's not forget there will be other epidemics."

Almost 5000 people have so far been infected by the virus in West Africa - half of them have died.

But worryingly the epidemic is accelerating, with half the cases occurring in just the last three weeks.

Professor Hill said: "Witnessing the events in Africa makes it clear that developing new drugs and vaccines against ebola should now be an urgent priority.

"It is tremendous that so many people have worked hard to make this trial happen in short time, and I am enormously grateful to those volunteers who have come forward to take part."

The trial has been funded by a £2.8m grant from the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council and the UK Department for International Development.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has announced further UK support to tackle ebola in West Africa, including providing 700 treatment beds in Sierra Leone.

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Obama: 'This Is Not America's Fight Alone'

President Barack Obama has pledged to keep building an international coalition to defeat Islamic State militants, hours after the US and five Arab nations launched airstrikes against the group in Syria.

"America is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with these nations on behalf of our common security," he said at the White House.

"The strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this is not America's fight alone."

He said defeating IS would take time and effort but added: "We're going to do what's necessary to take the fight to this terrorist group."

After the brief statement, the President left for the UN General Assembly in New York, where he will seek to broaden consensus for the US-led effort.

A Tomahawk missile is launched from USS Arleigh Burke

The air campaign used land- and sea-based US aircraft as well as Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from two Navy ships in the Red Sea and the northern Persian Gulf.

At least 70 IS fighters are said to have been killed in dozens of attacks, which also targeted al Qaeda veterans.

The US has targeted IS facilities in Iraq but this is the first time the campaign has expanded into Syria, a country torn by three years of civil war.

The US military said it had destroyed or damaged multiple IS targets around the militant stronghold of Raqqa as well as Deir al Zor, Hasakah and the border town of Albu Kamal.

The apparent aftermath of a US airstrike in Idlib

It said targets included IS fighters, training compounds, headquarters and command-and-control facilities, storage facilities, a finance centre, supply trucks and armed vehicles.

The five Arab nations - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates - either participated in the airstrikes or provided unspecified support, US officials said.

Separately, the US alone carried out eight airstrikes to disrupt what the military described as "imminent attack plotting against the United States and Western interests" by a shadowy network of al Qaeda veterans.

Where the airstrikes took place in Syria

"Once again, it must be clear to anyone who would plot against America and do Americans harm that we will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people," said Mr Obama.

A US official said the al Qaeda-linked Khorosan group was nearing the execution phase for an attack in Europe or the US.

Mr Obama had been wary of dragging the US military into the conflict between the regime of President Bashar al Assad and rebel groups.

Islamic State have made rapid gains in Iraq and Syria

However, Damascus says the US had informed Syria's envoy to the UN about the strikes.

Activists said the airstrikes hit targets in and around the Syrian city of Raqqa and the province with the same name.

Raqqa is the Islamic State group's self-declared capital in Syria.

International efforts to combat the group have taken on an added urgency after the beheading of two journalists and an aid worker, and the threat to kill UK hostage Alan Henning.

The strikes did not involve the UK but Prime Minister David Cameron supported them and will discuss at the UN what contribution Britain can make, according to Downing Street.

Photographs taken in Raqqa showed wreckage of what IS fighters said was a drone that had been shot down.

Pieces of the wreckage were shown loaded into the back of a van.

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